Belarusian authorities must release all political prisoners, including members of 2020 Right Livelihood Laureate organisation Human Rights Centre “Viasna,” we told the UN Human Rights Council in a statement prepared jointly with Viasna on Wednesday.
Addressing the 50th session of the Council in Geneva, we drew attention to the detention and ill-treatment of Belarusian human rights defenders, who are being prosecuted solely for their work. Authorities have been systematically silencing all opposition since large-scale protests broke out in 2020 following fraudulent presidential elections.
Our statement warned that people prosecuted on political grounds are often subjected to lengthy pre-trial detention periods and unfair trials behind closed doors.
“We deplore the precarious detention conditions and ill-treatment to which [Viasna members] and the other political prisoners, whose number has doubled since June last year, are subjected to,” the statement said.
Watch our joint statement with #RightLivelihood Laureate @viasna96 delivered at #HRC50 today ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/6upesmlvTJ
— Right Livelihood (@rightlivelihood) June 29, 2022
In particular, we highlighted the condition of Marfa Rabkova, the coordinator of Viasna’s volunteer services, who is currently on trial. Her health has drastically deteriorated due to a lack of medical attention and denial of treatment since she was detained in November 2020.
“We continue to relentlessly urge the authorities to abide by their international human rights obligations, including by respecting international standards on detention, and to immediately and unconditionally release [Viasna members] Ales Bialiatski, Valiantsin Stefanovic, Uladzimir Labkovic, Marfa Rabkova, Tatsiana Lasitsa, Andrei Chapiuk, Leanid Sudalenka and all other political prisoners,” the statement said.
2020 Laureate Ales Bialiatski, Viasna’s founder and chairman, was detained last July as Belarusian authorities intensified their crackdown on civil society.
Our statement was delivered during a dialogue with the UN Special Rapporteur on Belarus.
